Pods and Ends
by Sparky Lurkdragon
Summary: A collection of shorts with topics ranging from character studies to random incidents on Ecco's journey.
1. Orange: The Sting–flower Fish

Author's notes: This is a collection of stories written for a challenge community called fanfic100 over at LiveJournal; the challenge is to write 100 fanfics in a fandom of your choice, each fic corresponding to a given prompt. I chose the Genesis/Mega Drive storyline of _Ecco the Dolphin_.

Many of the stories are long enough that I am comfortable with giving them their own entry on an archive, and they can be found via my profile, but others are either too short in wordcount or in focus to be given their own entry. They are the vignettes and drabbles of the challenge; obviously I like them enough to count them as stories, but I don't feel they are strong enough to stand on their own at an archive. So, they are collected here and presented in the order I wrote them in; consequently, this collection skips all over the _Ecco_ timeline.

With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy these pods and ends.

Disclaimer: Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.

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**Title:** The Sting-flower Fish  
**Summary:** Ecco discovers a fish with a very unusual home.  
**Characters:** Ecco, a random clownfish, and a random sea anemone  
**Prompt:** Number 12, Orange  
**Word Count:** 445  
**Rating:** K

Ecco had stopped his journey to the Big Blue to feed and rest. He had accomplished the first task as easily as ever, and he was floating at the surface to complete the second, dozing in the half-sleep of the Singers. He was singing his Song of Sight to watch for the Hungry Ones; his song saw none, but it did see something neither it nor his eyes had ever seen. A fish was swimming among the tentacles of a sting-flower, unharmed and uneaten. Ecco began to wake up at this oddity, instincts wondering at first if the strangeness was dangerous, intellect wanting to know more once he was completely conscious. He took a diving breath and went to investigate.

As he dove, he saw a flash of orange among the green-blue of the sting-flower as the strange fish darted in among the tentacles. Ecco circled the sting-flower, singing the Song of Sight as he went, curious and hungry for the fish – hungry more in his brain than in his stomach.

"How can such a thing be?" he said, singing to no one but himself. "Why does the sting-flower not eat the fish, but let it swim freely inside it? Is the sting-flower sick, perhaps?" He completed another circle. "Yes... perhaps that is the thing. I wonder what sort of fish is so bold to swim among the tentacles of even a sick sting-flower." Ecco swam slowly up to the sting-flower and poked at it with his snout, not quite sure what to expect from it. With a squeak, he pulled back again as his snout touched the sting-flower – the tingling at the end of his jaws said the sting-flower was quite healthy.

He circled the fish's fortress again, half looking at it with his song and half singing a frustrated but somewhat respectful song at the fish. "Clever and tricky fish, to fool a sting-flower; very clever indeed, to fool a thing with no thought. What trick do you use? A stranger home there never was, little orange fish. But I suppose never a safer, either; if Singers could fool the sting-flowers, we would not need to fight the Hungry Ones."

He completed another circle, singing only the Song of Sight, before adding to his song to the fish.

"...But would the sting-flower save you from the Winds of Water? It took even the Shelled Ones."

At this Ecco abruptly surfaced, shooting into the Dry Side with a spin, landing again in the water to return to dozing, muttering quietly in the middle of his Song of Sight as he returned to a Singer's half-sleep.

"No sting-flower would save anything from the Storm..."


	2. Teammates: Strange Alliance

**Title:** Strange Alliance  
**Characters:** Ecco, random Singers, Big Blue and Asterite mentioned  
**Prompt:** Number 26, Teammates  
**Word Count:** 1,071  
**Rating:** K-plus, with violence in the form of non-graphic predatory behavior  
**Summary:** Ecco comes across a superpod with an unusual hunting strategy.  
**Author's Notes:** Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive. This story includes spoilers for those who have not reached the Big Blue yet in _Ecco the Dolphin_.

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Ecco was swimming south, away from the frozen north and the Big Blue, once more on a journey to see a wise old being – the strange creature the Big Blue had called the Asterite. Ecco hoped what the Big Blue had said was true, that the oldest thing in the sea could help him where the great whale had not been able to.

As the water was becoming the warm temperature Ecco was used to, he heard distant singing. The Singers singing it were too far-off for him to make out the song's meaning, but he could tell it was a happy and proud song. Seeking companionship – he had seen no other Singers save the Big Blue after he had entered the open ocean and swam among the hard waters of the north – he headed towards the singing.

As he got closer, Ecco partially recognised the song; it was some sort of hunting song, though he had never heard one quite like it before. It sounded like the yellow-striped Singers were singing it, and there were many of them. When Ecco could see the large pod with his song, he called to them.

"You are hunting?"

The answer came from at least a hundred voices. "We are hunting!"

"I am hungry."

"Come join us, friend Singer!"

Ecco sped up, following his Song of Sight and the singing of the great pod, their own Songs of Sight mixed with the hunting song. They were hunting a great shoal of fish, said the song, and to hunt them, many pods had joined together to come closer to matching the prey's numbers with their own. Even the Hungry Ones would help to catch the fish, the song said – the Hungry Ones followed the Singers now, but would be hungry for fish and not Singers when the shoal was found. The Hungry Ones, the Singers, even the birds and seals would come together for this hunt – but the fish would dive soon, and had to be found quickly.

Ecco had experience in herding fish, as his own pod had sometimes done, but he had never seen it on this scale – and he had certainly never seen nor heard of Singers and Hungry Ones working together, though he had sometimes seen birds take fish to their world of the Dry Side, occasionally seen the seals dart in to silently hunt with the Singers. "That sounds like a strange thing," he sang in response to that part of the song, "for the Singers and the Hungry Ones to form a pod!"

"It _is_ a strange thing!" answered a Singer from the great pod. "It does not happen often. When it does, though, it is a good thing for all – the Hungry Ones do not attack us, and we need not attack them, so long as the fish are there."

"The fish! The fish!"

The shoal was now visible to the songs of those at the front of the great pod, and the Singers accelerated to catch up to their prey; it wasn't long before the fish were visible to song and sight alike. Ecco had never seen so many fish of a kind together all at once – a hundred-thousand Singers of his size wouldn't have been able to eat the enormous shoal in a year. Guided by the continuing hunting song, Singers who had herded the great shoal in years past and newcomers to this hunting strategy worked in harmony, separating a large number of fish from the shoal – but the now-doomed fish were but a small fraction of the gigantic shoal's numbers. Every Singer had a part, and the parts changed with time; some dove to the bottom of the swirling mass of fish to keep the prey from diving, some circled around the edges to keep the school from dispersing, some charged through the school to feed, and, of course, they all surfaced for air in turn.

Then the Hungry Ones came, and forgot the agile and dangerous Singers in favor of the panicked fish; thus the Singers no longer had need to keep the fish from diving, for the Hungry Ones, of course, have no need to surface like Singers do. The birds had gathered, too, diving into the water and out again with fish; then the seals came, circling and charging the school with the Singers.

It was but an hour or two until the school was completely gone, right down to the last fish, and the strange group made of Singers, Hungry Ones, seals, and birds separated, becoming a pod, a school, a herd and a flock once more. All were full and happy, or in some cases as happy as they could be despite low intelligence or troubled feelings, and Ecco's thoughts turned from hunting to his own lost pod.

"Have any of you heard of the Asterite, the wise old creature that will not sing but has great energy of thought?" he sang to the great pod.

"No."

"No."

"No."

"Why, friend?"

"I seek it for its help. I have lost my pod – the Great Winds of Water took them."

"Great Winds of Water?"

"I have heard of those." The Singer who had said that began singing the Songs of the Storm, and others who had heard them joined in; those who, like Ecco, had been personally affected by the Storm added to the song, and so in time the entirety of the great pod understood.

"So you seek your pod. I know not of them, nor of the Asterite."

"Nor I."

"Nor I."

"I don't think anyone does. We are sad for you, but we cannot help you."

Ecco thought for a minute. "Then... does anyone at least know of somewhere very deep?" he asked.

"Deep as the great hunters of Ten-Arms go?"

"I don't know about the Ten-Arms hunters, but there is a place to the east with water so deep, no songs are sung of it. Perhaps the Asterite is there?"

"Perhaps it is. I must go there, then; if none but the greatest of Singers have heard of the Asterite, I must go where no songs are sung to find it." Ecco broke off from the great pod, swimming to the east as he had been instructed. The Singers of the great pod wished him luck as he swam away; luck to find the Asterite, whatever it was, and luck to find his lost pod.


	3. Children: Little Lost Orca

**Title:** Little Lost Orca  
**Characters:** Ecco and the two orcas from the level "Sea of Darkness"  
**Prompt:** Number 28, Children  
**Word Count:** 347  
**Rating: **K  
**Summary**: A lost child is rescued.  
**Author's Notes:** Although this story takes place in the middle of _Ecco: The Tides of Time_, there are no real spoilers.  
Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.

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The young orca was frightened. She had been separated from her mother after a terrifying attack on their pod, and was now too afraid to leave the air bubble she had found in the dark cave; she was too inexperienced to be able to look for her mother with her song, too young to even be so far away from the safety of her mother's side. She was swimming back and forth under the air bubble, surfacing when she needed to, silent out of fear.

The orca child was there for some time before she heard singing. She stopped swimming back and forth, facing the entrance to the air bubble's cave to listen. The song didn't sound like her mother's, nor any of the orcakind's, but it _was_ singing. She called back, her song as meaningless as any baby's; a few moments later, a plainly-colored Singer with a long snout swam into the air bubble's cave. The little orca was very glad to see the grown-up, and whistled happily at him, swimming over to his side. He sang a short, gentle song, then took a breath at the air bubble, the young orca copying him. With his lungs full, the adult Singer began to move off, the child swimming closely by his side to use his movement to help her own.

With complete trust she followed, though she could barely see her rescuer. They lost each other temporarily in a strong current, and that was very frightening for the little orca, but her rescuer sang so they could find each other, both by sound and, in the adult's case, a Song of Sight. They swam on through the darkness for a time, and then the little orca heard her mother's voice. Elated, she called back meaninglessly and darted over, rubbing against her mother's side. Her mother sang a happy, soothing song to her child, and then turned her attention to the stranger. The young one did not understand nor really take note of the conversation, overjoyed to be back in the warm security of her mother's presence.


	4. Sound: First Song

**Title: **First Song  
**Characters:** Ecco, his mother, and his 'auntie'  
**Prompt:** Number 37, Sound  
**Word Count:** 320  
**Rating:** K  
**Summary:** A possible explanation for Ecco's name.  
**Author's Notes:** Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.  
No spoilers.

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"Keep up. Keep up. Keep up, little one."

The day-old Singer could not understand his mother's song. He did understand that it was his mother singing, though, and stuck close to her.

"Keep up."

He liked her song. The young one decided to try singing back, because the song his mother sang was nice.

"Up, up! Leh-eep," he sang.

The Singer who was not his mother, the only member of the pod that his mother would allow near her and her baby for the moment – the child's Watcher – was surprised. "Listen, already he tries to sing! Smart little one!"

"Yes, you are smart, aren't you?" sang his mother, pleased. "Keep up, keep up."

"Esoo. Kee up! Up up."

His Watcher was amused and impressed. "He is like the Song of Sight returning from the rocks! And at such a very young age, too. I don't think I have ever heard of any Singer of our kind trying to sing so young."

"You are right. Perhaps he needs a name to reflect this. Keep up."

"Lect. Ight, nee? Keep up."

"Yes, definitely," sang his Watcher.

His mother sang a pleased song, singing to the child but also telling the ocean at large possible ideas for the little one's name. "Keep up, you little Song of Sight, you little Echo. Keep up, little Sound-Reflection."

"Up, up, up! Lect. Ooo... Ecco ecco."

Both adult Singers were amused and laughed at the child's mangling of the Singer word for 'echo'. The little one copied this, too, sensing it was a very good song, then decided he was hungry and dove under his mother to feed.

"I like that. It would suit him," his Watcher sang.

"I will think about it. But I think you may be right."

"Thi thi!" sang the feeding baby. He finished by the end of this announcement and resumed swimming beside his mother, continuing his happy babbling. He liked singing.


	5. Convergence and The Pod of Earth

Note: This chapter is comprised of the stories for two prompts. They're both quite short and go together.

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**Title:** Convergence  
**Characters:** A pod of orcas and the Asterite  
**Prompt:** Number 78, Where?  
**Word Count:**311  
**Rating:** K  
**Summary:** The Asterite's great song reaches a pod of orcas, and they heed its call, using the knowledge it grants them.  
**Author's Notes:** Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.

Spoilers for _Ecco: The Tides of Time._

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The orcas, reunited at last after a Vortex attack, were playing happily in their home bay. They knew they were still in great danger, knew the Earth itself was still in great danger, but for the moment they did not know what they could do about it, and so they were taking some time to enjoy being together again, singing joyful songs and gleefully chasing each other. Suddenly, their play stopped, the orcas entranced by a strange song that was not singing, a 'song' sung by the Asterite.

The 'song' was weakened with distance, and was more pictures and concepts than words, but the orcas understood it. They saw, in a bay far away from theirs, the Vortex hive, and they understood the concept of a battle between the Singers and the Vortex. They saw a little grey dolphin swim through a strange silver ring, coming out the other side in a totally different area; after him followed a white whale, then an orca, then a big blue whale, the ring expanding to fit whoever was swimming through it, shrinking back down afterwards. The orcas became aware of such a ring near them, and they then understood from the 'song' that the rings were invisible to the sight and song of any who had no knowledge of them. Then, the Asterite's 'song' ended, and the orcas came out of their trances.

After a short conference, it was decided that a few of the mothers would stay behind to feed and protect the littlest ones, and so these few watched as their mothers and their sisters formed a line in front of the ring, swimming through it and disappearing one by one. The orcas staying behind began singing encouraging, excited songs; their podmates, indeed all of Earth's Singers, could and would win against the Vortex. The Earth's rightful future depended on them.

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**Title:** The Pod of Earth  
**Characters:** The Singers and the Vortex  
**Prompt: **Number 53, Earth  
**Word Count:**100  
**Rating:** K  
**Summary:** A drabble about the fight that happened towards the end of _Ecco: The Tides of Time_.

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Singers from all the oceans of Earth had gathered above the Vortex hive, called together by the Asterite's mighty 'song' and brought there by the Atlanteans' teleport rings. There were big Singers and there were small Singers, old and young Singers, Singers of simple songs and Singers of elaborate songs, black Singers and white Singers and Singers of every color in between, all of them gathered to fight for their home and for their future.

The Vortex Queen sent her drones to deal with the threat, the pod of Earth descended on the hive, and the great battle was begun.


	6. Perfect Balance and Dark Future

Author's note: A couple of related drabbles this time, both rated K. Some spoilers for _Ecco: The Tides of Time_. The prompts are numbers 73 and 74, Light and Dark.  
Disclaimer: Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.

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**Title:** Perfect Balance  
**Summary:** A drabble about the Earth's rightful future.

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Life on Earth is in perfect balance.

The ocean itself is alive, given consciousness by its oldest inhabitant, the Asterite, and the ocean gives the Asterite a body beyond its globes. In the Living Sea, creatures live and die as they always have, and Singers leap and play as they always have, some jumping into the Dry Side and staying there, swimming through the great sea of the sky, and their cousin Singers follow them through the water tubes, the Skyway. With each passing generation, the Singers seek to swim ever higher, yearning to explore beyond their little water planet.

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**Title:** Dark Future  
**Summary:** A drabble about the Earth's dark future.

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Life on Earth serves the needs of the Vortex.

The hive, so small a million Queens ago, wraps around all the seas of the planet, and to some extent it rises above them, too. All of the planet's sapient creatures, beings who might have risen against the Vortex, were killed and eaten long ago, both the creatures of water and the creatures of land. The Earth is not dead yet, but every passing Queen and drone generation brings it closer; the Vortex still activate their beam often, feeding on livelier worlds. The Earth is dying, but the Vortex still thrive.


End file.
